What’s in the future for fuel cell vehicles?

FCV sales volumes are expected to be significant, but only in the long term, even with a favorable climate-policy scenario. Due to a recognized absence of CO2 emissions during vehicle operation, expectations of the future FCV market are growing following the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The agreement for the first time brought all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change. Within a similar scenario, the international energy agency (IEA) estimates an FCV market share of about 17% by 2050 (35 million annual unit sales). Yet will hydrogen fuel cells fully demonstrate their benefits when the uptake scenario is still uncertain? Fabrizio Arena, Daniele Spera and Fabio Laguardia at Arthur D. Little discuss.

Partnering to address the rising cost of clinical trials

The cost of the clinical trial process today is upwards of $100mn. So how can drug developers with robust R&D pipelines but a limited operating budget make the most of their portfolios and get as many promising new therapies to market in the narrow window before patents expire? In a word, partnerships. In this article, Ben van der Schaaf at Arthur D. Little discusses why by working with CROs, universities, and patient advocacy organizations, innovative drug makers can find investors who see their intellectual property as a valuable starting point for the drug development process.

New funding models to progress low-priority clinical trials

The cost of funding a clinical trial today can run biopharma companies upwards of $100mn, and that does not even begin to consider the costs of marketing and distribution necessary for a new life enhancing therapy to reach patients' hands. Global pharma businesses that spent the last decade building a robust pipeline of early stage compounds and indications are now faced with a wide portfolio of potential assets without the resources to fund their development. The result? Drug makers who've made the investments necessary to ensure a strong R&D pipelines are now losing billions each year in potential revenue as promising new therapies are sitting dormant, waiting for their patent to expire. In this article, Ben van der Schaaf at Arthur D. Little discusses new funding models to progress low-priority clinical trials.

Energy & Utilities
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The Energy Industry Times |
01 May 2017

Will America First Make Carbon Reduction Last?

As the new President concludes his first hundred days in office, global regulators and industry experts are questioning how the U.S. power sector will respond to Trump's America First Energy Plan, and whether it will achieve significant carbon reduction under an administration emphasizing low cost supply and domestic energy sources, specifically coal, shale oil and shale gas. Will the renewables sector continue to grow without government support? How will natural gas demand shift as it competes against coal? Ultimately, will the U.S. power industry keep pace with the rest of the world in reducing overall carbon emissions? In this article, Yvonne Fuller, Kirsty Ingham, and Paola Carvajal at Arthur D. Little discuss Trump's Energy Policy and the U.S. Power Market.

Manufacturing
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Manufacturing Today Europe |
01 May 2017

E-Learning: Facilitating Workplace Training

E-learning leverages slide shows, videos, gamification and simulation to create interactive discussions and knowledge sharing in digital format. It is a quick and flexible way to train a large number of employees, independent of physical location and time, and create attractive opportunities to effectively drive changes within an organization. By using interactive quizzes and tracking methods, e-learning has been shown to increase motivation and learning engagement while making it possible to follow up employees' results, ensuring everyone completes their training modules and gains the essential knowledge. Additionally, with digital material it is easier to maintain and make central changes to the learning material compared to traditional non-digital formats, keeping it updated at all times. In this article, Niklas Brundin, Wolf-Dieter Hoppe, Johan Treutiger, Carl Reiman and Caroline Dedering at Arthur D. Little discuss how E-learning can facilitate workplace training.

Network quality vital for Europe’s move to ‘Gigabit Society’

While capacity and speed will always be important, European companies need networks that are exceptionally reliable and adaptable to launch new technologies across Europe, writes Richard Swinford at Arthur D. Little.

Electric Vehicle Subsidies: Environmentally-Friendly Or just welfare for the rich?

In this article, Arthur D. Little's report on why electric vehicles may not be as environmentally- friendly as stated is discussed. The report is referenced as saying that manufacturing a compact and mid-sized electric vehicle discharges 12 thousand and 17 thousand pounds more CO2 gases than manufacturing a comparable gas-fueled vehicle.

Tackling the digital hype: Executing digitally-enabling strategies

Most executives agree that successfully implementing a business strategy is usually a lot more challenging than developing it. Unrealistic or overly academic theories, while persuasive on paper, can be costly in practice and all too often lead to passive resistance or even "tissue rejection" by the host organization. In this article, Greg Smith, Mandeep Dhillon, Laurie Guillodo, Xabier Ormaechea and Carl Bate at Arthur D. Little, discuss why in these situations, advances in technology, increasingly software related, are frequently perceived as a "silver bullet" that can ensure effective delivery of the anticipated change.

New Product Development: Organizing to identify customer needs

Obtaining a deep understanding of customer needs is central to any new product development process. Over the last decade tools and techniques for obtaining customer intelligence in B2C industries have become increasingly sophisticated. Digitalization now provides a vast reservoir of hitherto untapped analytical data, and customers are becoming increasingly engaged in the design process itself. Companies in B2B industries, on the other hand, have a much narrower base of customers, many of whom have regular personal interactions with their suppliers. In this article, Chandler Hatton, Michael Kolk, Martijn Eikelenboom and Mitch Beaumont at Arthur D. Little, discuss why this interaction should make the process of understanding customer needs more straightforward.

The importance of understanding RCP regulation

Telecom players dedicate significant resources to complying with retail & consumer protection (RCP) regulation, having created complex horizontal processes and tools spanning several departments. Despite this, Andrea Faggiano, Giancarlo Agresti, Giulia Strusi, Richard Swinford and Gregory Pankert at Arthur D. Little, say that the complexity of the subject and the continuous flow of new rules often translate into unwise actions, which are eventually punished by regulatory institutions.